Cancer is a term used to describe a group of malignancies that all share the common trait of developing when cells in a part of the body begin to grow out of control. Most cancers form as tumors, but can also manifest in the blood and circulate through other tissues where they grow. Cancer malignancies are most commonly treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy. The type of treatment used to treat a specific cancer depends upon several factors including the type of cancer malignancy and the stage during which it was diagnosed.
Taxotere, whose chemical name is docetaxel, is a common cytotoxic agents used for the treatment of breast, androgen independent prostate and non-small cell lung cancer. Docetaxel, which is also known as Taxotere, has the formula:

This compound has been associated with debilitating side effects such as bone marrow density loss, allergic reaction, neutropenia, nausea and vomiting. By monitoring the levels of docetaxel in the body and adjusting the dose these side effects can be better controlled and limited in patients.
At the same time, there is often highly variable relationship between the dose of docetaxel and the resulting serum drug concentration that affects therapeutic effect. The degree of intra- and inter-individual pharmacokinetic variability of docetaxel can be as high as 4-fold and is impacted by many factors, including:                Organ function        Genetic regulation        Disease state        Age        Drug-drug interaction        Time of drug ingestion,        Mode of drug administration        Technique-related administration        
As a result of this variability, equal doses of the same drug in different individuals can result in dramatically different clinical outcomes (Hon et. al. Clinical Chemistry 44, pp 388-400, 1998). The effectiveness of the same docetaxel dosage varies significantly based upon individual drug clearance and the ultimate serum drug concentration in the patient. Therapeutic drug management would provide the clinician with insight on patient variation in intravenous drug administration. With therapeutic drug management, drug dosages could be individualized to the patient, and the chances of effectively treating the cancer, without the unwanted side effects, would be much higher.
In addition, therapeutic drug management of docetaxel would serve as an excellent tool to ensure compliance in administering chemotherapy with the actual prescribed dosage and achievement of the effective serum concentration levels. It has been found that variability in serum concentration is not only due to physiological factors, but can also result from variation in administration technique.
Routine therapeutic drug management of docetaxel would require the availability of simple automated tests adaptable to general laboratory equipment. Tests that best fit these criteria are immunoassays. In order to be an effective immunoassay antibodies will have to be developed which are reactive with the active form of the drug. Currently there are no immunoassays available for determining levels of docetaxel in plasma or blood.